1887
Volume 17, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1571-0718
  • E-ISSN: 1571-0726
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

Although two languages in contact may contain similar structures, superficial structural similarities may abscond important differences. The comparative method critically determines whether the languages differ in relative rates of variant use, the significance of independent variables, constraint rankings, and ordering within factor groups (Poplack & Tagliamonte 2001). The study explored intensifier (i.e., degree modifier) variation between Spanish and and Catalan and “very”, as based on 84 sets of responses from bilinguals on a 24-item contextualized preference task (40 in Catalan, 44 in Spanish). Results indicated significantly higher selection of in Spanish than in Catalan. Moreover, independent variables played a greater role in Spanish, with adjective quality, animacy, and verb type all predicting intensifier selection, whereas in Catalan only adjective quality was predictive. The study provided the first variationist analysis of Catalan intensification, while also revealing key systemic differences between the two languages despite surface similarities.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/sic.18021.kan
2020-06-03
2024-09-17
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Agostini, Tainara D. and Scott A. Schwenter
    2018 “Variable Negative Concord in Brazilian Portuguese: Acceptability and Frequency.” InContemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics: Selected Papers from the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2015, ed. byJonathan E. MacDonald, 71–94. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10.1075/ihll.15.05ago
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.15.05ago [Google Scholar]
  2. Arjona, Marina
    1990 “El adverbio muy y otros intensificadores en el habla popular de México.” Anuario de Letras28: 75–96.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Batllori, Montserrat and M. Lluïsa Hernanz
    2009 “En torno a la polaridad enfática en español y en catalán: un estudio diacrónico y comparativo.” InDiachronic Linguistics, ed. byJoan Rafel, 319–352. Girona: Documenta Universitaria.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. 2013 “Emphatic Polarity Particles in Spanish and Catalan.” Lingua128: 9–30. 10.1016/j.lingua.2012.11.010
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.11.010 [Google Scholar]
  5. Birdsong, David, Libby M. Gertken, and Mark Amengual
    2012Bilingual Language Profile: An Easy-to-Use Instrument to Assess Bilingualism. COERLL, University of TexasatAustin. Web. 20Jan. 2012 <https://sites.la.utexas.edu/bilingual/.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Blas Arroyo, José Luis
    2004 “El español actual en las comunidades del ámbito lingüístico catalán.” InHistoria de la lengua española, ed. byRafael Cano Aguilar, 1065–1086. Barcelona: Ariel.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. 2008 “The Variable Expression of Future Tense in Peninsular Spanish: The Present (and Future) of Inflectional Forms in the Spanish Spoken in a Bilingual Region.” Language Variation and Change20: 85–126. 10.1017/S095439450800001X
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S095439450800001X [Google Scholar]
  8. 2011 “Spanish in Contact with Catalan.” InThe Handbook of Hispanic Sociolinguistics, ed. byManuel Díaz-Campos, 374–394. Malden, MA: Oxford-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781444393446.ch18
    https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444393446.ch18 [Google Scholar]
  9. Brown, Esther L. and Mayra Cortés-Torres
    2013 “Puerto Rican Intensifiers: Bien/muy variables.” InSelected Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, ed. byAna Maria Carvalho and Sara Beaudrie, 11–19. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Bybee, Joan
    2006 “From Usage to Grammar: The Mind’s Response to Repetition.” Language82: 711–733. 10.1353/lan.2006.0186
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2006.0186 [Google Scholar]
  11. 2010Language, Usage, and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511750526
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511750526 [Google Scholar]
  12. Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca
    1994The Evolution of Grammar: The Grammaticalization of Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Cuenca, Maria-Josep and Marín, Maria-Josep
    2009 “Co-occurrence of Discourse Markers in Catalan and Spanish Oral Narrative.” Journal of Pragmatics41: 899–914. 10.1016/j.pragma.2008.08.010
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.08.010 [Google Scholar]
  14. Ellis, Nick C. and Stefanie Wulff
    2015 “Usage-based Approaches to SLA.” InTheories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction (2nd ed.), ed. byBill VanPatten & Jessica Williams, 75–93. New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Enrique-Arias, Andrés
    2010 “On Language Contact as an Inhibitor of Language Change.” InContinuity and Change in Grammar, ed. byAnne Breitbarth, Christopher Lucas, Sheila Watts, and David Willis, 97–117. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/la.159.05enr
    https://doi.org/10.1075/la.159.05enr [Google Scholar]
  16. Geeslin, Kimberly L.
    2003 “A Comparison of Copula Choice in Advanced and Native Spanish.” Language Learning53: 703–764. 10.1046/j.1467‑9922.2003.00240.x
    https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1467-9922.2003.00240.x [Google Scholar]
  17. Goffman, Erving
    1981Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Gutiérrez, Manuel
    1995 “On the Future of the Future Tense in the Spanish of the Southwest.” InSpanish in Four Continents: Studies in Language Contact and Bilingualism, ed. byCarmen Silva-Corvalán, 214–223. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Haspelmath, Martin
    2014 “The Three Adnominal Possessive Constructions in Egyptian-Coptic: Three Degrees of Grammaticalization.” InEgyptian-Coptic Linguistics in Typological Perspective, ed. byMartin Haspelmath, Eitan Grossman, and Tonio S. Richter, 262–285. Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Haspelmath, Martin and Andrea D. Sims
    2010Understanding Morphology (2nd ed.). London: Hodder Education.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hernanz, M. Lluïsa
    1995Bien y la polaridad positiva en español. Estudio inédito.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. 2010 “Assertive Bien in Spanish and the Left Periphery.” InMapping the Left Periphery: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 5, ed. byPaola Benincà & Nicola Munaro, 19–62. New York: OUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Institut d’Estudis Catalans
    Institut d’Estudis Catalans 2017Gramàtica de la llengua catalana. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Ito, Rika and Sali Tagliamonte
    2003 “Well Weird, Right Dodgy, Very Strange, Really Cool: Layering and Recycling in English Intensifiers.” Language in Society32: 257–279. 10.1017/S0047404503322055
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404503322055 [Google Scholar]
  25. Johnson, Daniel E.
    2009 “Getting off the Goldvarb Standard: Introducing Rbrul for Mixed-Effects Variable Rule Analysis.” Language and Linguistics Compass3: 359–383. 10.1111/j.1749‑818X.2008.00108.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00108.x [Google Scholar]
  26. Kanwit, Matthew, Virginia Terán, and Silvia Pisabarro Sarrió
    2017 “Un fenómeno bien curioso: New Methods for Analyzing Variable Intensification Across Four Dialects of Spain and Argentina.” Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics10: 259–295. 10.1515/shll‑2017‑0008
    https://doi.org/10.1515/shll-2017-0008 [Google Scholar]
  27. Klee, Carol A. and Andrew Lynch
    2009El español en contacto con otras lenguas. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Labov, William
    1978 “Where Does the Linguistic Variable Stop? A Response to Beatriz Lavandera.” InWorking Papers in Sociolinguistics (Vol.44). Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. 2001Principles of Linguistic Change, vol. 2: Social Factors. Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Lavandera, Beatriz R.
    1978 “Where Does the Sociolinguistic Variable Stop?” Language in Society7: 171–182. 10.1017/S0047404500005510
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500005510 [Google Scholar]
  31. Meyerhoff, Miriam
    2009 “Replication, Transfer, and Calquing: Using Variation as a Tool in the Study of Language Contact.” Language Variation and Change21: 297–317. 10.1017/S0954394509990196
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394509990196 [Google Scholar]
  32. Poplack, Shana and Sali Tagliamonte
    2001African American English in the Diaspora. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Pradilla, Miquel Ángel
    2001 “The Catalan-speaking Communities.” InMultinguialism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups, ed. byM. Teresa Turell, 58–90. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Romaine, Suzanne
    1984 “On the Problem of Syntactic Variation and Pragmatic Meaning in Sociolinguistic Theory.” Folia Linguistica18: 409–437. 10.1515/flin.1984.18.3‑4.409
    https://doi.org/10.1515/flin.1984.18.3-4.409 [Google Scholar]
  35. Salvador Salvador, Francisco
    1987 “La gradación adjetiva en el habla popular de Ciudad de México.” Actas del I Congreso Internacional del Español de América, 419–430. San Juan de Puerto Rico: Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Sankoff, David and Pierrette Thibault
    1981 “Weak Complementarity: Tense and Aspect in Montreal French.” InSyntactic Change, ed. byBrenda B. Johns and David R. Strong, 206–216. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Sankoff, David, Shana Poplack, and Swathi Vanniarajan
    1990 “The Case of the Nonce Loan in Tamil.” Language Variation and Change2: 71–101. 10.1017/S0954394500000272
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500000272 [Google Scholar]
  38. Sankoff, Gillian
    1973 “Above and Beyond Phonology in Variable Rules.” InNew Ways of Analyzing Variation in English, ed. byCharles-James N. Bailey and Roger W. Shuy, 44–61. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Schwenter, Scott A. and Rena Torres Cacoullos
    2008 “Defaults and Indeterminacy in Temporal Grammaticalization: The “Perfect” Road to Perfective.” Language Variation and Change20: 1–39. 10.1017/S0954394508000057
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394508000057 [Google Scholar]
  40. Sedano, Mercedes
    2002–2004 “Este tema es muy/bien interesante.” Archivo de filología aragonesa59–60: 859–873.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Serradilla Castaño, Ana
    2006 “Bien + adjetivo como perífrasis de superlativo en español. Particularidades semánticas y sintácticas.” Verba33: 215–233.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Tagliamonte, Sali
    2008 “So Different and Pretty Cool! Recycling Intensifiers in Toronto, Canada.” English Language and Linguistics12: 361–394. 10.1017/S1360674308002669
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002669 [Google Scholar]
  43. 2012Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Torres Cacoullos, Rena and Catherine E. Travis
    2010 “Testing Convergence via Code-Switching: Priming and the Structure of Variable Subject Expression.” International Journal of Bilingualism15: 241–262. 10.1177/1367006910371025
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006910371025 [Google Scholar]
  45. Vann, Robert E.
    1998 “Pragmatic Transfer from Less developed to More Developed Systems: Spanish Deictic Terms in Barcelona.” InRomance Linguistics: Theoretical Perspectives, ed. byArmin Schwegler, Bernard Tranel, and Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria, 307–318. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/cilt.160.22van
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.160.22van [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/sic.18021.kan
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/sic.18021.kan
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): comparative method; morphosyntax; sociolinguistic variation
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error